Part of surgical training comprises assisting surgeons in performing surgeries and performing surgeries during surgical residency under the supervision of a more experienced surgeon. A surgeon may be faced with a variety of different types of excisions, repairs, and other types of surgery during his/her career. Therefore, it is of great benefit to have an opportunity to perform surgeries of different types and of differing degrees of difficulty during training. Unfortunately, in many training programs there are not as many opportunities to perform certain types of surgeries as would ideally be desired. In certain parts of the country, in underdeveloped areas, and in smaller hospitals or training programs there may be fewer opportunities to assist or perform some types of surgeries.
In the field of gynecological surgery, for example, surgeons may perform vaginal hysterectomies, abdominal hysterectomies, bladder injury repair, removal of an ectopic pregnancy, morecellation of the uterus, or oophrectomy, for example. It would be of great benefit to a surgical trainee to have an opportunity to assist with or, preferably, to perform these types of surgeries as part of the surgical training. In some training programs, however, there are not enough of these procedures performed in the training hospital to provide an opportunity for each trainee to perform them in sufficient number to achieve a greater degree of proficiency.
Anatomical models have been described for use in medical teaching settings.